Does Salt Water Affect Plant Growth?

Question- If salt water will have a good affect or bad affect on plant growth

Hypothesis- That regular unsalted wager will be better for plant growth because I feel like any amount of salt water will act like acid rain

Procedure-

1. Get 6 exact same plants

2. Have one 1/4 cup of water with one teaspoon of salt, one with two teaspoons , and one with three teaspoons of salt. Then three with just regular unsalted water.

3. Water 3 of the plants with the different amount of salted water and three with regular water

4. Wait 2 weeks observe them daily

5. See how much each one grew

6. Measure the heights of each plant (with ruler)

7. Take pictures

Abstract- Does Salt Water Affect Plant Growth?

One day this summer I was at the beach and I asked myself a question. The question that I had asked myself was, would saltwater be good or bad for plant growth? I did not know the answer, but I could find out by experimenting and finding data. Before starting this project I had predicted that salt water would have a slightly poor effect on plant growth because I thought that the salt would act as acid rain, but obviously I was not sure.

I made a schedule for myself for watering the plants, on weekdays I would water them at 7:30am and on weekends I would water them at around 11:00am. I numbered each plant so that numbers 1,2, and 3 received regular water and 4,5,6 received the different amounts of salt. Every time I watered the plants I got ¼ cup of water and added the amount of salt that plant needed or if it didn’t need any. Each and every morning I’d take a picture of each plant before I watered it. I measured the plants every day to determine if the salt affected their growth. You must make sure that you do not forget to water and observe the plants each day. I watered them daily for three straight weeks.

With all my data with the plants, their heights and health went the way i thought besides for one plant. That plant was plant number 1, it was watered with just regular, unsalted water. It started off as 5 ½ inches, yet ended as 5 inches and it did not end up as a complete healthy plant, it’s leaves were brownish. The other two with just regular water grew by about an inch, so it is kind of strange for it to have ended up like it did. It isn’t completely a mystery however, there are some factors why it maybe didn’t grow as well as the others. One could be that I left the plants near the window, but plant number 1 was always farthest away from the sun. From my observations it seems to be that the plants I watered with regular water stayed healthy and even grew(besides plant number one) and the ones with the amounts of salt seemed to be less healthy and were less tall. What was average growth of plants with regular water and average growth of plants with salt.

In conclusion, saltwater is a horrible liquid for plants that grow on land. My prediction from the beginning was basically right I said that saltwater will be slightly bad for the plants and salt water was a poor thing for the plants. I could have watered them for a longer cycle for say a month or maybe even more. The only way I think an error or a mistake could have took place is that i maybe should have watered them every other day, maybe every day was to much. I think it’s now safe to say that salt water is not the best thing for plants. Concluding to this project, maybe I could follow up with a plant that grows in water, for example seaweed.

Conclusion- By far, this is the best project I have ever done. I learned so many different things throughout the process. Before starting the project, I was eager to learn about the topic, I could hardly wait. My prediction in the beginning was that there would be a slight negative effect on the plants that were being watered with saltwater. That did in fact occur during the experiment. One detail of this experiment that may have affected the outcome is the daily watering of the plants. Watering them every other day is one variable that could possibly have caused the results to vary results would be different. Overall , I believe that my project was very successful and scientifically based.